Past Present Future

This is my final project for my Artist as Designer/Designer as Artist class. We had all of our critiques and the last day of class was today. Thanks Cat Chow for traveling to Savannah for the past seven weeks to teach our class. It was such a great experience!

The title is Past Present Future. It’s about past, present, and future memories. I used each compartment in the doll trunk that I bought to represent these three eras of time.

The left side of the trunk represents the past. I created a frame like structure that I hung in the back part of the trunk. I thought about past memories and how they are suspended in time so I made a cameo form that represents my memories suspended in time. I started twisting this wire around and flattening part of it out so that it was this quirky “memory”. It is made up of precious crystals, beads, and pearls wrapped in copper tubing.

The right side of the trunk represents the present. I made forms out of copper wire that have the characteristics of the iron work in Savannah. I’ve been thinking a lot about iron work because it is a memory of a cast. This works well with the concepts of memory that I’ve been working with. Then, I made dream catcher forms out of different colored wire and place beads wrapped in copper tubing in each “memory catcher”.

The small compartment in the trunk represents the future. I made a mock drawer out of copper mesh. Then I placed the “memory catcher” forms in the drawer along with one beaded cameo. This represents what is waiting for me in the future. Some things are planned and some and unknown. They are not fully developed and are not ready to come out of this drawer. Some day they will join the rest of the memories, but right now they safe and waiting in this drawer. The presence of the future is always leering in the background, but will not be completely understood until the time is right.

Here are some pictures from the rest of my day! Just a little inspiration from Savannah.

Dichotomy

I would like to share something that we are discussing in my Artist as Designer class with Cat Chow.

“Dichotomy between/of: the conceptual and the three-dimensional, the scientific and the romantic, the rational and the irrational, the geometric and the organic, the abstract and the figurative, the simple and the complex, the rigid and the pliable, resisting and letting go, the permanent and the ephemeral, the horizontal and the vertical, feeling/emotion and physical form, joining and cutting, construction and destructive, destruction and reconstruction, breaking and repairing, tenderness and violence, love and hate, harmony and conflict, frustration and happiness, cusses and failure, birth and death, youth and age, the isolated individual and the shared awareness of the group, the one and the other, the private and the public, sculpture and environment, art and life, addition and subtraction, interiority and exteriority, verticality and horizontality, process and object, creative vision and the final result, natura naturans and natura naturata, the passive and the active, mind and matter, repetition and difference.”

- Louise Bourgeois

I read an interview with Louise Bourgeois from the book PressPLAY: Contemporary Artists in Conversation and I found it really interesting to read her thoughts about memory. I don’t necessarily relate to her views on this subject directly but I do connect to it at some level. It has certainly made me think about memory from a different perspective. The one thing that sticks in my mind is how she stated that she wanted to give her work permanence. I really relate to that statement and have wrote down that exact sentence several times.

I have really enjoyed reading interviews in this book and definitely recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary artists. It has been really beneficial to read about different artists’ thought processes.

In Progress

I’ve been working on my final project for my Artist as Designer/Designer as Artist class this week. I’ve also been thinking a lot about a few questions that I have: What do memories actually mean to people?, Why are people drawn to them?, What is the best way of interacting with my memory objects?, and How should I present my ideas. So far, I’ve come up with memories remind people of happy moments or experiences that they may or may not experience again. These are different to everyone based on their own personal life experiences. Some people think memory is really important and some don’t. I’m one of those people who thinks memory is extremely important and very interesting (Obviously!! haha).

A few ways that I’ve been thinking about presenting my ideas are: using suitcases, trunks, cosmetic cases, jars, and special boxes. Basically I’m trying to create an environment that my audience can relate to. I’ve also found out through my survey that sight, smell, and sound are the three most important senses when it comes to remembering a specific memory. So ideally I would combine these three senses and present my objects in one of the possible ways that I just listed to create the best environment. I’m still thinking and working a lot of things out, but for this final I’ve come to a conclusion. I bought a vintage doll trunk to use as my space for my project. Then once I sat down with all my materials and my trunk, ideas started to flow. I’m also working with the dichotomy of a memory in terms of past, present, and future. So here are some of my in progress pictures.

It’s coming together really well! Feel free to comment, leave feedback, or answer the above questions.

More Material Explorations

Here are some more material explorations that I’ve been working on today.

These studies are helping me figure out what I want to do for my final project in my Artist as Designer/Designer as Artist class. It’s due on Halloween along with two other deadlines so you probably won’t see me very often for the next week. I’m still in the exploring stage and hopefully by Friday I figure out exactly what I’m doing.

Material Explorations

I’ve been exploring with my new materials every day this week.

I still have lots of possibilities to explore and am going to start using tin foil as a quick “metal mesh” so I don’t use up my copper mesh with experimenting. It’s a challenge to sew with most of the metal threads so I’m going to start couching them down with other types of embroidery floss. I really like the rich coloring of the copper mesh. I’m also going to start playing around with patinas so see if I like an antiqued look better. I’ve been thinking about and looking at iron work in Savannah while I’ve been making these samples as well as vintage frames, cameos, embroidery techniques, and the Victorian era. It’s been fun and here are some of the samples that I have so far.

204 Pleasure Drive

My midterm project for the artist as designer/designer as artist class was to make something out of white paper.

I used different types of water color paper, pearlescent pigment, and embroidery floss to create this work. It’s called 204 Pleasure Drive. I used abstracted images of things that are strong in my memory as a concept to create this work. In the end they were all things that reminded me of my home (where I grew up) in Yorkville, IL. My address was 204 Pleasure Drive, and it seemed perfect for my old address to be the title of this piece.

This work has inspired me to work with smaller compositions using this same imagery. I’m in the process of making smaller prints and putting images together. I think 204 Pleasure Drive is going to be something that I’ll continue to re-work and add on to during this next year. This is a good start of something new and a step in the right direction for creating more collective and abstracted work dealing with memory.

Awls can be used to hold things in place as well as punching holes..hehe These are the kind of things you figure out at 2am. So any comments about this work??

Work in Progress

This is part of my Artist as Designer/Designer as Artist midterm project. I love it on its own and will probably make more similar to this. It is just a small part of my project so there is more to come. I screen-printed white pearlescent pigment on slightly off-white watercolor paper. Then I layered a softer watercolor paper over the screen-print. I embroidered french knots to keep both pieces of paper together.

These two are close ups

For those of you interested, the images are abstracted versions of my house (that I grew up in), my Dad’s signature, the tea cup that I’ve been using in my work, and some of my embroidery that I created.

This week in artist as a designer/designer as an artist…

In class today we focused on our midterm projects and finalizing our concepts/ideas. I worked on a composition layout during our 45 minute challenge and came up with something that I’m really excited about. I’ll talk more about this project once it’s finished.

After I narrowed down my ideas and came up with a good composition, I played around with paper just to experiment a little more. I thought if I came up with something interesting I could incorporate it into my midterm project. So here are the rest of the fun paper explorations that I worked on.

Artist as Designer/Designer as Artist – Week 2

This last week went by really quickly. In my artist as designer/designer as artist class we were given another 45 minute challenge. I think each challenge is going to be building on the last challenge so were still had paper and tape, but were also given scissors. This time I really tried to just clear my mind and make. I did a lot of thinking and writing over the week and just wanted to relax and let the paper talk to me rather than over thinking this project. I started by folding and cutting pieces of paper, and the shapes started looking like flowers and butterflies. So I started putting things together, and at first things were really literal. It was more about the form, pattern, and shape. I was combining these elements together and they started to look really interesting. Then the shapes got more abstract as I crumbled the paper and put things together. I think the abstract qualities are something that I can build upon later, in my work. After talking about this experience with the class our teacher, Cat Chow, decided that our midterm should be out of paper. We can use any type of paper as long as it’s white. She’s also letting us use white stitching, and white screen printing pigment, YAY!!. It has to be a visually compelling work that is also conceptually solid. It can be an art piece or designed object. It just has to be something that we feel passionate about. I think this is going to be a challenge and I’m excited about it. I’ll post the finished piece sometime after October 10th.

Don’t forget to keep posting your comments objects that evoke a memory, thanks! Here are my 45 minute challenge (#2) pictures.

Cat Chow Class – Day 2

Today our class went on a field trip to Keller’s Flea Market for inspiration. It’s such a nice day in Savannah and was fun to be able to walk around and just take pictures/browse for interesting items. I didn’t end up buying anything, but I took a lot of pictures. Here are some of my favorites & I’m sure they will spark inspiration for something in the future.